The Z-family (as told in 25 moments)
by LianneZ4
Summary: The various moments in the lives of Liv, her friends, family and New Seattle over the course of roughly five decades. Post-Season 4, probably not Season 5 compliant.


**THE Z-FAMILY (AS TOLD IN 25 MOMENTS)**

**Summary: The various moments in the lives of Liv, her friends, family and New Seattle over the course of roughly five decades. Post-Season 4, probably not Season 5 compliant.**

_**Content Notice:**__ Very mild sexual content, non-graphic mention of BDSM._

_This is a belated fandom stocking gift for cookielaura._

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**Liv**

1\. She returns to her career as a heart surgeon. When she's thirty-eight, she performs a new and frankly crazy procedure that saves the life of a five year old boy and gets her name on the front pages of every major newspaper for her discovery. She still won't be allowed to travel to about 70% of the other countries due to the little blue "Z" in her passport.

2\. Liv never wanted to be a stepmom but Clive gets to spend the weekends with Jakey so she tries her best with the kid. It's one hell of a bumpy ride full of teenage drama and running away and one sealed juvenile record, but when Jake grins at her at his graduation ceremony and Dale half-hugs her and pats her back, she thinks she did all right.

3\. After the case with Tracey Petterson, Clive is skittish around people – around _her_ – and they kiss and make out a little but it's hasty and stressed and messy, and then Clive can't get aroused and just. No. It's Liv who suggests putting him completely in control, prompting their first ever shared trip into the world of safewords, bondage, pain and pleasure. It's far from the last time though.

(She nearly rips Petterson to pieces the day after Clive finally tells her everything. Clive is mad as hell at her, and he says he's not some fucking _territory_ for her to mark. And he's right – he has all the right to be furious. Still, there's a _very_ small part of Liv that's unrepentant about the whole thing. Because this was a zombie-to-zombie matter and she'll be damned if she lets some freak mess with her boyfriend.)

4\. She eventually makes up with Evan and they see each other several times a year. Her mom still won't talk to her, despite all the times that Liv has apologized, despite all the times that she has tried and failed to find a way she could have done things differently. She feels – cold, distant – at the funeral – and she doesn't cry until Clive takes her home and wraps his arms around her, telling her she's okay, she'll be fine, she's kind and perfect and good, zombie or human.

5\. Just as much as she couldn't imagine her life without Clive, she couldn't live without Peyton and Ravi either. They're more than the best friends in the world, they're family, and Liv tells them so many times over the years. They always brush it off and then group-hug so they can pretend they don't see the others tear up. It doesn't matter – she _loves_ these guys, and she'd do pretty much anything for either of them. Zombie or human, she's the luckiest person in the world.

**Major **

1\. He was the Chaos killer, a Fillmore-Graves soldier, he worked with troubled zombie teens and finally became one of the Fillmore-Graves leaders, and somehow he always found his ground eventually, no matter what new shitty development the world tossed at him. What really stumps him is turning sixty and still being alive _(undead)_ with decades yet ahead. It's funny; ever since he found that human brain in a plastic box, before he even became zombie that first time, Major half-expected that all this would get him killed.

2\. They do their best to keep New Seattle afloat, but in the end it's a group of scientists from Maine that save them all. The GMO pig brains change everything. It takes nearly six years but eventually New Seattle rejoins America and "zombie" becomes just another option next to vegetarian and vegan. There's bigotry and hate crimes and a zombie prison, but overall things return to more or less to normal.

3\. Major stays at Fillmore-Graves even after the military parts of the organization are officially disbanded. He talks to new zombies, gives lectures at schools and coaches a basketball team of zombie and human kids that wins the state competition in four out of seven years. He smiles, counsels and cheers and tries to pretend that he doesn't miss the army and the camaraderie of his fellow soldiers like a lost limb. It even works some of the time.

4\. He still believes that what they did was necessary. Oh, he doesn't _like_ a lot of what they did (the executions, kidnapping an innocent teenage girl, the underhanded deals with Blaine and other brain smugglers), but they kept Seattle from self-destructing, kept the zombies and humans from attacking each other and the US from nuking them and honestly? He'd like to see others do better than that. He also knows that Liv will never forgive him for being okay with some of those things, and he's not going to pretend to be ashamed of them, not even for her. It still hurts like hell to see her with Clive.

5\. The debates about the costs/benefits of a "zombie welfare law" go back and forth for months. As one of the Fillmore-Graves leaders, Major gives an interview on TV, talking about his experience with the starving zombie kids, the hunger he felt during his short stint in prison, the sheer _desperation_ of a zombie that has gone without food for too long. The hate mail and death threats feel like a small price to pay when they pass the law that guarantees five pig brains per month to the poorest._ They're finally safe._

**Ravi**

1\. Back to normal they say? "I guess. Though that new fashion of "indoor helmets" is _really_ ridiculous. I mean, have you_ seen_ a hungry zombie? If they really want to eat your brain, some cheap plastic won't stop them." Ravi pauses. "Speaking of which, we _really_ need a more eco-friendly option than the pig brains. Apparently they can't get the rabbits to grow bigger so that one's a no-go. Wonder how far along they are with the GMO octopus…"

2\. Calm? "Clive, I'm _freaking terrified_. Peyton's the best thing that ever happened to me, if I mess that up – look, just make sure I don't forget the rings tomorrow, okay?"

3\. They talked about the four of them going on a holiday oversees, maybe visiting the places where Harry Potter was filmed. That's before Liv's travel visa is denied. "Stupid ignorant zeephobes. Well, I guess we can tour the continental Europe instead?... Fuck Brexit."

4\. "Hey, whatever you decide, I'm there with you." Ultimately, Peyton decides not to run for governor. In a way, Ravi is relieved – she would have been even busier if she ran for the office, and he already wishes that they had more time for each other. He stands behind what he said though – she would have been better than all of the other three candidates.

5\. "I wish I could do more," he mutters one night, lying in bed with his wife.

His Z-antiviral doesn't cure zombiism. It does decrease the need to consume brains by about twenty percent, and more importantly, it _drastically_ lowers the chances of transmitting the virus.

It's not a cure, but it does allow zombies to be with humans and makes the virus seem less threatening to the general population.

"You did enough," says Peyton next to him. Ravi looks at her and smiles.

**Peyton**

1\. She takes the responsibility, takes over as the Mayor of New Seattle and becomes a part of every major history book for centuries to come. And it's not that Peyton doesn't want to do it – she's happy that she can finally make a real difference, that she can change the way that humans see zombies and help create a true harmony between the two people. But sometimes she wishes she had a _real_ choice in this, you know?

2\. Blaine was a mass-murderer, a liar and a sociopath, and she knows, she_ knows _she's better off without him. Heck, the entire world is better off without him in it. And yet – Ravi holds her as she grieves for him, and he doesn't judge her, and Peyton loves him for it.

3\. Ravi calls her after Liv tracks Tracey Petterson and goes full-on zombie on her just outside the police station. Peyton's mandate as the Mayor has ended just four months ago and her name alone still carries power, but she doesn't want to be that kind of a lawyer. Instead, she asks Petterson – does she_ really_ want to explain on the witness stand how she scratched and tormented her human colleague simply to "preserve their cover"? They drop the charges after that.

4\. She helped Liv with her "Renegade" initiative, and they kept accepting sick humans even after Peyton became Mayor. What she doesn't tell Liv – what she didn't tell anyone, even as she smiled on the TV, _Peyton Charles, Mayor of New Seattle, the brave, caring woman saving humans from premature deaths_ – is that Major and Fillmore Graves were right; _there weren't enough brains to feed them all._ If not for the GMO pigs, they were maybe five months away from starving, turning on each other and probably getting nuked by the US government. Is she the wise visionary they make her out to be or just a fool who got lucky? Whatever, they survived and that's what counts.

_She got them through; now she can finally sleep without nightmares. _

5\. She loves Ravi for designing the antiviral that allows Liv and Clive to be together. And for being his empathic, optimistic self. And for always standing by her side, no matter what. And for a hundred more reasons beyond that.

**Clive**

1\. His high school sweatheart didn't want to do a long-distance relationship, Emma from Narcotics thought he was dirty, and things were great with Dale until they suddenly weren't and there was the divorce and struggling to stay civil for little Jakey's sake. He didn't want to do that with Liv. She was too important to him as a friend and Clive couldn't risk losing her if things didn't work out. He finally asked her out when Ravi _and_ Peyton told him to stop being an idiot.

2\. It's not just that a zombie colleague treated him like her playtoy – hurting him, humiliating him, threatening to eat his brain and fucking _scratching_ him _(the week of dread as he wondered if Ravi's antiviral protected him, waited for the cravings to start, waited for his hair to turn white, waited for his body to change forever)._ No, what made it ten times worse was that Petterson clearly enjoyed everything she did to him, even laughed at him the next day and told him to stop being a pussy. And what made it a thousand times worse – what made him feel more violated and angry than anything – was that the department just let it go, bought Petterson's story that "she was just acting the part of the zombie underground", didn't even give her a slap on the wrist. He has never felt more betrayed in his life.

3\. After, he's hurting, scared and fucking _angry_ _(he's got his hot amazing girlfriend in his bed and he can't even get aroused)_ and he doesn't think any kinky games can help them but Liv has been so patient with him so he owes her to at least try.

Turns out he _does_ like taking charge. And handcuffing his girlfriend. And toying with her for a _long_ time before finally bringing her to orgasm. Blindfolding her. Spanking her over his knee.

But what Clive loves the most – what's the biggest reward and _really_ makes it all work – is just holding her, comforting and cuddling her afterwards. Liv looks at him with total trust and it fixes a part of him, sooths his rage against the world.

4\. For thirty-eight years, he keeps writing letters to newspapers, university professors and the Nobel Committee. Year thirty-nine, he stands next to Liv as she hugs Peyton who's crying proud happy tears while Ravi accepts the Nobel prize for his Z-antiviral. If you ask Clive, it's nearly four decades overdue.

He owes Ravi everything.

5\. His hair is gray and he has two grandchildren when he finally takes Liv to that trip to Britain. Walking next to Peyton, he watches Ravi and Liv waving twigs at each other, wearing ridiculous hats, screaming pseudo-latin phrases, laughing and running as fast as their aged bodies allow them. He rolls his eyes but takes a photo of them and then kisses Liv and makes love to her once they return to their hotel room.

_All is well._

_Fin_


End file.
